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1 D. D. T. Jabavu, ‘Native Unrest: Its Cause and Cure’, paper presented to the Natal Missionary Conference, 1920, in D. D. T. Jabavu, The Black Problem: Papers and Addresses on Various Native Problems (Lovedale: Lovedale Institution Press, 1920): 1.

2 Abantu-Batho, cited in Indian Opinion, 6 September 1913.

3 G. Lestrade, ‘European Influences upon the Development of Bantu Language and Literature’, in I. Schapera (ed.), Western Civilization and the Natives of South Africa: Studies in Culture Contact (London: Routledge, 1934, repr. 2004): 126.

4 Abantu-Batho, cited in M. Work (ed.), Negro Year Book 1916–7 (Tuskegee: Negro Year Book Company, 1917): 65. See also Part II.

5 E. Neveu and R. Kuhn, ‘Political Journalism: Mapping the Terrain’, in R. Kuhn and E. Neveu (eds), Political Journalism: New Challenges, New Practices (London: Routledge, 2002): 6–7, drawing on Bourdieu.

6 Something akin to the practice in dedicated squares in Addis Ababa of the 1920s; I owe this fact to conversations with Getahun Haile, an assiduous researcher of Ethiopian history of the period.

7 D. Fraser, ‘The Editor as Activist’, in J. Wiener (ed.), Innovators and Preachers: The Role of the Editor in Victorian England (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1985): 121–22.

8 South African Native National Congress Constitution, NTS 7204 17/326 and 1217/14/110. This was published by the printing side of the Abantu-Batho Company; see SANNC, SANNC Constitution (Johannesburg: Abantu-Batho, [1919]), copy in the British Library.

9 ‘S. African Native National Congress’, Tsala, 26 April 1913. Naledi was ‘among the leading advocates in the native press … of the establishment of a permanent South African Native Congress’ and ‘published a circular … distributed over South Africa, inviting native leaders and chiefs to cooperate in promoting it’ (Anon., ‘A South African Native Congress’, American Review of Reviews 45, 1912: 228–29).

10 Transvaal Native Congress Constitution, [c.1919]: 9, copy in NTS 7204 17/326, attached to S. M. Pritchard, Director of Native Labour, to SNA, 17 May 1919, 1217/14/110.

11 T. D. Mweli Skota, ‘African National Congress’, Abantu-Batho [c.4], February 1926, Wits Historical Papers, Skota Papers, 1930–74, A1816, Bc.

12 ‘Notes and Comments’, Abantu-Batho, 20 December 1917, JUS 3/527/17.

13 ‘The Congress’ and ‘Transvaal Native Congress’, Abantu-Batho, February–March 1920: 17. The missionary-style language is a reminder that African churches had been a major focus of black organising.

14 Anon., ‘A Week of the World: African Protestors’, Living Age 322(4174–86), 1924: 247–48. With his predilection for history, the author may have been Thema.

15 S. B. Macheng, ‘Correspondence: The Transvaal African Congress’, Abantu-Batho, 11 September 1930 (the editor added a rider that the paper was not responsible for his views), responding to ‘Ho Morena le ma khlala ohle a Transvaal African Congress’ of 31 July 1930. Aaron was Moses’s brother: Exodus 6.

16 F. H. Hawkins to Saul Msane, Abantu-Batho, 27 January 1916, clipping in Rhodes House Library, Mss. Afr. s.24 J.11. For a similar intercession, see Part II, ‘Reply to Mr. Plaatje’, Abantu-Batho, 9 December 1915.

17 S. M. Makgatho, SANNC and TNC president to Umteteli, 26 March 1921; I am indebted to Peter Lekgoathi for sharing his translation. Makgatho is responding to Abantu-Batho of 3 February 1921.

18 Untitled notice, Umteteli, 8 January 1921.

19 Untitled news report, Abantu-Batho, 11 July 1918.

20 L. S. Motsepe and F. Bryn (I-ANC) to Abantu-Batho, 9 April and 25 June 1931, respectively.

21 Moses T. Ngqase, ‘Amanqaku ase Sterkstroom’, Abantu-Batho, 16 December 1920, JUS 3/127/20.

22 E. P. Mart Zulu, ‘Mhleli waBantu Batho’, Abantu-Batho, 14 June 1923; P. Limb, The ANC’s Early Years: Nation, Class and Place in South Africa before 1940 (Pretoria: Unisa Press, 2010): 320; ‘Tsa Evaton’, Abantu-Batho, 11 September 1930.

23 ‘Orange Free State News’, Abantu-Batho, 20 December 1917; ‘Orange Free State Native Congress: Ngodutshulwa kwaBantu’, repr. in Ilanga, 24 May 1918.

24 Guy Fawkes, ‘Isangoma’, Ilanga, 21 August 1914 on no-confidence votes in Dube in Abantu-Batho; ‘Isimemo se Langa lase Natal: Nituleleni?’, Abantu-Batho, repr. in Tsala ea Batho, 20 March 1915, on Plaatje’s financial needs in London: Abantu-Batho commented to Dube, ‘the rest of the Black Nation was not comfortable with your not informing them that Sol Plaatje was in such difficulty’. See Part II for the text.

25 ‘The King Williamstown Election’, Abantu-Batho, repr. in Imvo, 12 October 1915.

26 Ilanga, 12 January 1917 on Mabaso and Lenanka. Notices were cross-posted: see ‘Izindatshana ngezinto naBantu’, Ilanga, 10 May 1918 via Abantu-Batho that Thema and Dunjwa were fined £50 for a railway misdemeanour and ‘Umhlangano obus Emgungundhlovu’, Ilanga, 3 July 1914 from Abantu-Batho.

27 Mfana wase Makolweni, ‘Amatiletile’, Ilanga, 2 October 1914.

28 J. Ngubane, ‘Ku Ilanga lase Natal na ku Bantu-Batho’, Ilanga, 14 February 1919; ‘Ukuvivinya kwa “Abantu-Batho”’, Ilanga, 2 February 1918; J. T. Gumede, ‘The Natal Native Congress’, Ilanga, 12 May 1916.

29 R. V. S. Thema, ‘“The Voice of the Races of South Africa” vs. the Bantu People of South Africa’, Ilanga, 28 April 1916. See also G. Christison, ‘African Jerusalem: The Vision of Robert Grendon’, PhD, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007; H. Hughes, The First President: A Life of John L. Dube, Founding President of the ANC (Auckland Park: Jacana, 2011): 191.

30 P. la Hausse de Lalouvière, Restless Identities: Signatures of Nationalism, Zulu Ethnicity and History in the Lives of Petros Lamula (c.1881–1948) and Lymon Maling (1889–c.1936) (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 2000): 6, citing Abantu Batho, 6 April 1920, DNL 144/13 D205(1). For more on this, see P. la Hausse de Lalouvière, ‘“Death Is Not the End”: Zulu Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Zulu Cultural Revival’, in B. Carton, J. Laband and J. Sithole (eds), Zulu Identities: Being Zulu, Past and Present (Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008): 256–72.

31 Ilanga, 29 December 1916; ‘SA Native National Congress’, Abantu-Batho, repr. in Ilanga, 28 December 1917.

32 ‘Msane Is Not Wanted’, Abantu Batho, 4 July 1918; R. Mdima and A. Champion, ‘Igatya leNatal Native Congress eGoli elizwisa u’Bantu-Batho ubuhlu ngu ngoba kutiwa ligodu sa ifa’, Ilanga, 23 May 1919. Cf. E. H. May, ‘Kunga kangelwa kuti ukupendla Malunga nezimvo zaba Bhale-li Konke’, Umteteli, 31 July 1920 on Abantu-Batho ‘suspecting’ mine clerks and that clerks from Roodepoort and Randfontein trying to join Congress had been rejected’; my thanks to Sifiso Ndlovu for translating these latter two texts.

33 S. Msane, ‘Ipepa l’Abantu-Batho noMr Saul Msane (kuMhleli wa Abantu-Batho)’, Ilanga, 9 May 1919. See also the chapters by Christison, Lowe and Landau in this volume for more on these differences.

34 ‘Ezase Goli’, Ilanga, 29 December 1916; N. Cope, To Bind the Nation: Solomon kaDinu-zulu and Zulu Nationalism, 1913–33 (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1993): 214.

35 M. Foucault, The Courage of the Truth, ed. F. Gros (New York: Palgrave, 2011): 6.

36 La Hausse de Lalouvière, ‘“Death Is Not the End”: 266; correspondence with C. Lowe, 21 February 2012.

37 ‘Amalungu e Executive Committee ye N.N. Congress’, Ilanga, 22 June 1917.

38 In his report commissioned by the editor Msimang saw the Pondo chief’s invitation as the ‘beginning of the Union of the Northern with the Southern Bantu’. Black politics in the Cape was ‘inactive but not dormant’ (R. W. M., ‘The Transkei & the Native Affairs Administration Bill’, Abantu-Batho, 2 May 1918).

39 ‘Umtata Meeting’, Abantu-Batho, 18 April 1918, DNL 144/13 D205.

40 ‘Queenstown and the National Congress’, Abantu-Batho, 20 June 1918.

41 ‘Northern Emissaries’, Abantu-Batho, 13 June 1918. Against this push of Congress ‘the Imvo stands alone. Of course, it does not pretend to speak for Natives; nor does it ever express native opinion.’

42 M. Pelem, ‘To the Native Conference at Queenstown’, 26 February 1919, in T. Karis and G. M. Carter (eds), From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882–1964, vol. 1 (Stanford: Hoover University Press, 1972): 101–4.

43 ‘More Bloodshed’, Abantu-Batho, 1 May 1930; ‘Ma Afrika a Tshoarane ka Litlena mo Motseng oa Cape Town’, Abantu-Batho, 28 August 1930 on Thaele and the Communist Party of South Africa.

44 ‘Abolition of Poll Tax Wanted: Resolutions at African National Congress’; ‘Litaba le Litabana: Pasa ea Basali’; and J. S. Nkoana, ‘Lefu la Mr. Albert Mothibi’, Abantu-Batho, 5 June 1930; ‘African National Congress le Communist Party’, Abantu-Batho, 3 July 1930; ‘Joint Meeting’, Abantu-Batho, 19 June 1930.

45 ‘Isaziso: Se Independent I.C.U.’, Abantu-Batho, 11 September 1930.

46 A. K. Soga, ‘Bantu Union Deputation to the Low Grade Mines Commission’, Abantu-Batho, February–March 1920. That Soga was a pioneer black editor and a founder of Congress, with the Bantu Union not yet deemed a great threat to Congress, may have influenced the decision to publish.

47 Agenda of the Conference, signed Edward Sauer Mochochoko, General Secretary, in SAP to SJ, 4 June 1920, JUS 3/127/20. The meeting also discussed the affiliation of the Native Women’s League.

48 ‘Fingo’ to Abantu-Batho, 4 July 1918. Commenting on the paper’s report on a Fingo Day celebration in Nancefield on 14 May 1918, he called for people to ‘drop these’ ethnic events and unite nationally.

49 ‘Correspondence: Reply to Mr. S. M. Makgatho’, Abantu-Batho, 24 April 1919.

50 ‘The National Congress’, Abantu-Batho, 22 April 1920, JUS 3/127/20. The symbol disappeared in 1929.

51 H. R. Ngcayiya, ‘Native Grievances’, Abantu-Batho, 9, 16 December 1920; this was a detailed report, suggesting that the correspondent was at the meeting, held in the Ethiopian Church in Bedford on 15 November.

52 ‘The Bantu Awakening’, Abantu-Batho, 2 May 1918, DNL 144/13 D205.

53 Editorial, Abantu-Batho, 9 May 1918, DNL 144/13 D205.

54 ‘The Mdolombian Dictum’, Abantu-Batho, 3 July 1930.

55 ‘You Are Invited’, Abantu-Batho, 22 April 1922, trans., DNL 144/13 D205.

56 ‘Unrest’, Abantu-Batho, 22 April 1922, trans., DNL 144/13 D205.

57 ‘Is Abantu-Batho Turning a New Leaf?’, Ilanga, 11 February 1921, referring to Abantu-Batho, 3 February 1921. The same issue also carried a similar isiZulu article (‘Ungqimpotwe ka Bantu-Batho’) on Abantu-Batho. Makgatho responded to these issues in a letter in Sesotho to Umteteli, 26 March 1921.

58 ‘Manifesto of the All-African Convention’, Abantu-Batho, 5 June 1924, Rhodes House Library, Mss. Afr. s.24 J15. Due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’, Abantu-Batho was not represented at the SANNC conference.

59 ‘U Dr. P. Ka I. Seme’, Abantu-Batho, 1 May 1930 (nomination to ANC); ‘… Tshisiinyo ea Dr. Xuma’, Abantu-Batho, 19 June 1930 (on Major Cooke); Abantu-Batho, 10 July and 25 September 1930 (Fort Hare address); Abantu-Batho, 9 July 1931.

60 G. M. Pakade, letter to the editor, and S. Ratlou, ‘Tsa Northern Native Association’, Abantu-Batho, 1 May 1930; ‘Notice’, Abantu-Batho, 17 July 1930.

61 S. M. Bennett Ncwana, ‘Political Necessity’, Abantu-Batho, 21 August 1931. He continued, disparaging Khoi and San peoples, claiming a virility and purity for Africans that both the former and white settlers allegedly lacked.

62 Rev. P. Lamula, ‘Umhlangano we Nkatakwa Zulu ema Hashini’, Abantu-Batho, 2 October 1930; e-mail of Paul la Hausse de Lalouvière to the author, 12 June 2011.

63 Mkasibe to editor, ‘Special Accounts’, Abantu-Batho, 15 May 1930. ANC Johannesburg president in the 1920s, he worked as a caretaker and later wrote to Seme’s African Leader (Limb, The ANC’s Early Years: 372–73).

64 ‘African National Congress & Mkasipe’s Surreptitious Pen’, Abantu-Batho, 5 June 1930; Mkasibe, ‘To See Once Is to See Twice’, Abantu-Batho, 19 June 1930; ‘ANC’, Abantu-Batho, 26 June 1930.

65 ‘Kgosi-Kenna’, Tsala ea Batho, 12 December 1914, from Abantu-Batho. King was ‘the popular Native Commissioner of the Pretoria District’ who at the outbreak of war had chaired a meeting at which Congress leaders pledged support to Britain (S. Plaatje, Native Life in South Africa, ed. B. Willan (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1982): 301.

66 ‘Farewell Msindazwe!’, Abantu-Batho, 20 January 1916, Rhodes House Library, Mss. Afr. s.633 Coryndon Papers, box 10: see Part II; ‘Col. Pritchard & the Natives’ and ‘Farewell to Col. Pritchard: Notable Speeches’, Abantu-Batho 6, 13 March 1924, copy in Rhodes House Library, Mss. Afr. s.24 J15.

67 ‘Jansen and Natives’, Abantu-Batho, 11 September 1930.

68 S. M. Makgatho, ‘The Killing of the Israelites: The Union Government and the Aborigines of South Africa’, Abantu-Batho, 16 June 1921; see Part II for the text.

69 ‘When Political Upstarts Legislate’, Abantu-Batho, 19 June 1930.

70 ‘Intelo e Swazini’, Abantu-Batho, repr. in Ilanga, 18 February 1916. I thank Grant Christison for the translation.

71 ‘Our Magistrates’, Imvo, 14 November 1922 noted that Abantu-Batho published a ‘most scathing revelation of the want of sympathy on the part of one of the Transvaal Magistrates in Pietersburg’.

72 ‘Dipping Regulations’, Abantu-Batho, 20 December 1917; also carried in Ilanga, 4 January 1918.

73 ‘Native Annual Conference’, Abantu-Batho, 10 July 1930.

74 ‘Economic Commission’, Abantu-Batho, 10 July 1930; editorial, Abantu-Batho, 14 August 1930.

75 ‘Statement of Chief Grievances Western Native Township Johannesburg’, Abantu-Batho, 17 June 1930.

76 I. B. Moroe, ‘Joint Committee of the Non-European Organisations, Marabastad Location Pretoria’, Abantu-Batho, 17 July 1930. See also Limb, The ANC’s Early Years: 369–70.

77 Clipping from Abantu-Batho, 14 May 1923, Rhodes House Library, Mss. Afr. s.24 J15.

78 ‘The Way of Freedom’, Abantu-Batho, 14 May 1923, Rhodes House Library, Mss. Afr. s.24 J15.

79 Rev. D. W. Alexander, ‘Race’, Abantu-Batho, 2 October 1930.

80 ‘Poor Black Problem’, Abantu-Batho, 22 December 1927, Rhodes House Library, Mss. Afr. s.24 J17; here the paper was reprinting a letter of Karney published in The Rand Daily Mail.

81 ‘African Race and Corporate Responsibility’, Abantu-Batho, 9 October 1930.

82 ‘A Clash Must Come’, Abantu-Batho, February–March 1920.

83 ‘Cry for Better Living’, Abantu-Batho, February–March 1920.

84 Cited in ‘Living on the Proceeds of …’, International, 1 June 1923.

85 Abantu-Batho, 30 November 1917, in ‘Modern Voortrekkers’, International, 15 December 1916; see Part II. A piece from ‘one of the new Johannesburg Native papers’ irately reprinted by Jabavu (‘Disquieting’, Imvo, 17 June 1914) was likely from Abantu-Batho: ‘What is being talked about is the confiscation of lands from the Natives … and you should know … you are losing your life, your children’s inheritance.’

86 ‘The New Bill’, Abantu-Batho, 17 June 1920, JUS 3/127/20.

87 ‘Native Hut Tax Collection by Military Force’, Abantu-Batho, 31 July 1930.

88 ‘Grave Anomalies’, Abantu-Batho, 11 September 1930. Other correspondents at this time included James Mbiko Mtshengu of Bamboo Spruit and J. Mareme Modiselle of the African Club, to name only two.

89 In 1909 he noted he was not going to England to protest the Act of Union, but ‘entirely separate from any political move. I have been advised to keep clear of politics as it would injure my educational work’ (J. Dube to Harriette Colenso, 10 June 1909, Rhodes House Library, Colenso Papers, Mss. Afr. s.1286/2 (a)).

90 ‘Information Wanted’, Abantu-Batho, 18 December 1930.

91 ‘I Refuse to Answer’, Abantu-Batho, 1 April 1915, repr. in Ilanga, 9 April 1915; Christian Express, 1 May 1915: 67; cf. N. Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (Boston; Little, Brown, 1994): 133.

92 ‘Ubotshiwe’, Imvo, 10 October 1917 from Abantu-Batho; Plaatje to Jane Cobden Unwin, 10 July 1917, Jane Cobden Unwin Papers, University of Bristol Library, Special Collections, GB 3 DM 851; my thanks to Brian Willan for the latter, Heather Hughes for translation of the former. The case was dropped after he rejected a request to withdraw charges and ‘prepared an elaborate defence that was likely to bring before the courts these official outrages’.

93 ‘About the Case’, Abantu-Batho, 29 August 1918, JUS 3/127/20.

94 ‘The Case’, Abantu-Batho, 5 September 1918; ‘About the Case’, Abantu-Batho, 12 September 1918, both JUS 3/127/20.

95 ‘Contract’, Abantu-Batho, 24 October 1918, JUS 3/127/20. See also the chapter by Ndlovu and Limb in this volume.

96 ‘Justice at Last’, Abantu-Batho, 28 October 1920, clipping, JUS 3/127/20.

97 ‘Police Boys Charged: Zulus v. Zulus & Shangaans’, Abantu-Batho, February–March 1920.

98 ‘Benoni Loses Appeal’, Abantu-Batho, 24 April 1930.

99 ‘Poll Tax Test Case’, Abantu-Batho, 23 November 1922, Rhodes House Library, Colenso Papers, Mss. s.24 J14. See Part II for the text.

100 Selby Msimang, ‘The Civil Service’, Ilanga, 22 October 1915. Divorces also were carried: ‘Summons’, Abantu-Batho, 11 October 1923; ‘Order for Restitution of Conjugal Rights’, Abantu-Batho, 9 July 1931.

101 ‘Magistrate’s Judgement’, Abantu-Batho, 14 January 1918, clipping in GNLB 192.

102 J. Royeppen, ‘South African Justice’, Abantu-Batho, 26 June 1930.

103 ‘Johannesburg Municipality to Pay a Native Tenant Damages’, Abantu-Batho, 16 April 1931.

104 ‘Danger Signals for the White Farmers’, Abantu-Batho, 9 April 1931.

105 P. Rich, ‘The Origins of Apartheid Ideology: The Case of Ernest Stubbs and Transvaal Native Administration, c.1902–1932’, African Affairs 79(315), 1980: 187.

106 P. Bonner, ‘Kgatla Conspiracies, Pedi Plots: African Nationalist Politics in the Transvaal in the “Dead” Decade of the 1930s’, seminar paper, University of KwaZulu-Natal History Department, 2002; Limb, The ANC’s Early Years: 450.

107 ‘Where is the Bhunga?’, Abantu-Batho, 3 July 1930.

108 ‘Transvaal Native Congress’, Abantu-Batho, 24 April 1919; ‘Editorial Notes’, Abantu-Batho, 20 January 1916; ‘Editorial Notes’, Abantu-Batho, 24 July 1930; ‘Bafuna Kubuyiwe’, Abantu-Batho, 24 July 1930.

109 See R. A. Hill (ed.), The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers (hereafter Garvey Papers), vol. 10 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006): 371 for Abantu-Batho, c.7 August 1926; and R. T. Vinson, The Americans Are Coming! Dreams of African American Liberation in Segregationist South Africa (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2012): 95, 126.

110 A. W. Champion, ‘Isitukutuku senja sipelela eboyeni’, Ilanga, 18 July 1919. Peter Walshe pointed to clear traces of Garvey’s influence in Abantu Batho under Gumede from 1927 (‘Black American Thought and African Political Attitudes in South Africa’, Review of Politics 32, 1970: 65), but Hill and Pirio showed it was from at least 1920 (R. Hill and G. Pirio, ‘“Africa for the Africans”: The Garvey Movement in South Africa, 1920–1940’, in S. Marks and S. Trapido (eds), The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth Century South Africa (London: Longman, 1987): 209–53).

111 A. Lipede, Pan Africanism in Southern Africa 1900–1980 (Kaduna: Baraka Press, 2001): 59–63 claims that Thema was a major contributor to ‘Pan Negro’ sentiments in its pages. Thema, ‘Within the Ambit’, Abantu-Batho, February–March 1920 certainly does refer to Garvey.

112 See Robert Vinson’s chapter in this volume, Part II, and R. A. Hill, ‘Black Zionism: Marcus Garvey and the Jewish Question’, in V. P. Franklin et al. (eds), African Americans and Jews in the Twentieth Century: Studies in Convergence and Conflict (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1998): 41.

113 ‘Loyalty to the British Throne’, Abantu-Batho, 18 September 1914; Garvey Papers, vol. 7 (1990): 210.

114 See G. Shepperson and T. Price, Independent African: John Chilembwe and the Origins, Setting and Significance of the Nyasaland Native Rising of 1915 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1958): 202–3; H. Langworthy, ‘Africa for the African’: The Life of Joseph Booth (Blantyre: Christian Literature Association of Malawi, 1996): 278, 283, 411–21, 434–47, 451, 469; C. Saunders, ‘Pixley Seme: Towards a Biography’, South African Historical Journal 25, 1991: 199.

115 J. Booth and L. de Beers, ‘Legislation Affecting the Natives’, Tsala ea Batho, 26 April 1913; ‘Umhlangano eBloemfontein’, Ilanga, 14 August 1914; Langworthy, ‘Africa for the African’: 278, 283, 411–21, 434–39, 469 stresses Booth’s interest in Congress and his attendance at its meetings.

116 ‘The British Christian Union’, Mlomo wa Bantu, 26 November 1913, Shepperson Papers, University of Edinburgh. Advertisements for the British Christian Union are peppered throughout Imvo of these years.

117 The poems were ‘Prayer for Peace through Justice’ and ‘When Freedom’s Cause Is Won’. Garnett (1855–1930) was secretary of the English League of Universal Brotherhood and Native Races Association.

118 ‘Bogeys’, Umteteli, 24 February 1923 clearly refers to Abantu-Batho in attacking ‘a Native newspaper’.

119 Abantu-Batho, 7 June 1923: see Part II, and Garvey Papers, vol. 10 (2006): 106–8; T. O. Ranger, The African Voice in Southern Rhodesia, 1898–1930 (London: Heinemann, 1970): 90 ff.

120 Garvey Papers, vol. 9 (1995): 588–92.

121 ‘Stilblutten der Eingeborenenpresse’, Lüderitzbuchter Zeitung, 5 August 1922. My thanks to Dag Henrichsen for the translation. The German is probably a translation from Afrikaans in Die Volksstem, in turn translated from Abantu-Batho, so quite something may have been lost in translation.

122 James S. Thaele, ‘Christianity, Basis of Native Policy?’, Workers’ Herald, 21 December 1923, in Karis and Carter, From Protest to Challenge, vol. 1: 214.

123 L. Bishop, ‘A Free and Redeemed Africa’, Abantu-Batho, 1 May 1930, relaying an advertisement from New York for a ‘South Africa [that] offers fresh, thrilling travel adventures … the ruins of Zimbabwe … the Valley of Diamonds at Kimberley … plus golf, tennis surfing, sunbathing’, but only for those of ‘European descent’; ‘Marcus Garvey Urges Negroes to Build for Racial Uplift’, Abantu-Batho, 15 May 1930; ‘Negroes Must Select Leaders Who Are Best Equipped to Lead’, Abantu-Batho, 22 May 1930.

124 ‘Another Victory’, Abantu-Batho, 1 May 1930; Abantu-Batho, 2 October 1930.

125 In apartheid terminology, these were people of mixed race who resided mainly in the Cape.

126 ‘Who and What Is a Negro?’ (1923), in A. Jacques-Garvey (ed.), Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (New York: Atheneum, 1925, repr. 1982), vol. 2: 20–21, quoting Abantu-Batho, 29 March 1923.

127 R. V. Selope Thema, ‘Victory Celebrations in London’, Abantu-Batho, February–March 1920: 19–20.

128 Abantu-Batho, 20 May 1920, JUS 3/127/20.

129 For instance, see reports on events in Basutoland such as ‘Tsa Lesotho’, Abantu-Batho, 17 July 1930.

130 ‘Oppression of the Native & Coloured Races’, Abantu-Batho, repr. in Izwe la Kiti, 24 December 1912.

131 ‘The Swazi Scare’, Abantu-Batho, 9 January 1914, transcript in CO 417/546.

132 ‘Swaziland and the S. A. Union’, Abantu-Batho, 17 February 1916. The editor here was Grendon.

133 ‘Notes and Comments: A Swazi Aeroplane for the War’, Abantu-Batho, 25 April 1918.

134 R. Edgar, Prophets with Honour: A Documentary History of Lekhotla la Bafo (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, [1987]): 22; R. Weisfelder, ‘Early Voices of Protest in Basutoland: The Progressive Association and Lekhotla La Bafo’, African Studies Review 17, 1974: 397–409; ‘The Poor People of Basutoland Organise’, South Africa Worker, 11 May 1928.

135 A. Moremoholo, ‘Lefela ha a bolele tsona’, Leselinyana, 27 October 1922 citing Abantu-Batho, 28 September (Loetse) in connection with the governor-general; Mohlokalebitso, ‘Mohlokalebitso le Mosotho’, Leselinyana, 20 October 1922 on reports in Abantu-Batho and Friend, 31 August 1922.

136 L. Feldman, The Jews of Johannesburg, until Union, 31st May, 1910 (Cape Town: Jewish Publications, 2007): 113, citing Abantu-Batho, 25 April, 25 July 1913. Organisation was the key ‘to find a way in which all Africans in South Africa can acquire human, social, economic and political rights’. Israelstam helped found the Social Democratic Party and the ISL’s Yiddish Speaking Branch.

137 ‘White Africa’, Abantu-Batho, 14 June 1923. See Part II for the text.

138 International, 1 June 1923.

139 ‘Kwazi Owaziyo’, Abantu-Batho, October 1930, 27 November 1930; J. H. M., ‘The British White Paper’, Abantu-Batho, 27 November 1930; ‘Lefatshe lea Tleksesla’, Abantu-Batho, 11 September 1930.

140 ‘Native Women’s Brave Stand’, Indian Opinion, 2 August 1913; see also U. Dhupelia-Mesthrie, Gandhi’s Prisoner? The Life of Gandhi’s Son Manilal (Cape Town: Kwela, 2004): 170.

141 Abantu-Batho, 18 April 1918, DNL 144/13 D205.

142 ‘A Dignified Protest’, Indian Opinion, 26 September 1919; Letanka to J. Hunter, Transvaal Whites’ Protection League, 2 September 1919, in South African’s League, Handbook, Being the Official Report of Proceedings of Congress, Town Hall, Pretoria, 4–5 September 1919 (Johannesburg: Adlington, 1919): 54.

143 ‘Resolutions of the Transvaal Native Congress & the Asiatic Question’, Abantu-Batho, repr. in Ilanga, 3 October 1919. Indian immigration was noted in ‘Ngemfundo Yabantu’, Abantu-Batho, 2 December 1920.

144 C. Baker, ‘Imperialism in Practice’, Abantu-Batho, 4 September 1930 and ‘Ukusebenza kwama ndhla Ombuso’, Abantu-Batho, 4 August 1930 on the historical context of the Indian Mutiny and Meerut rising.

145 ‘Isipitipiti e India’ and ‘Why Mahatma Was Arrested’, Abantu-Batho, 1 May 1930, repr. from Star; ‘Gandhi’s Successor Arrested’ and ‘The New Leader’ [Sarojini Naidu], Abantu-Batho, 15 May 1930; ‘Hartal in India’, Abantu-Batho, 22 May 1930; ‘Support of the Indian Revolution’, Abantu-Batho, 3 July 1930.

146 ‘A Loud Clarion Call’, Abantu-Batho, 10 July 1930; ‘Malignant Campaign by Boer-British Imperialists’, Abantu-Batho, 17 July 1930.

147 ‘The Wolf and the Lamb’, Abantu-Batho, 7 August 1930.

148 ‘African & Indian Trading Association’, Abantu-Batho, 17 July 1930: 25% of 10,000 shares at £1 each. Advertisements for Hassan Mia Sammaky and Essop Bhagalia appear in Abantu-Batho, 14 August 1930.

149 SANNC, Memorial to King George V, 16 December 1918, Wits Historical Papers, Molema-Plaatje Papers Cc9: 8; and SANNC, Constitution (1919): 1, 13.

150 W. G. Jordan, Black Newspapers and America’s War for Democracy, 1914–1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001): 112–13.

151 ‘I Jerusalem Itatiwe’, Abantu-Batho, 20 December 1917 on the Middle East; ‘General Notes’, Ilanga, 10 August 1917 notes Abantu-Batho’s report that survivors from the voyage of the Mendi had been rescued.

152 ‘Hooray!’, Abantu-Batho, 17 February 1916.

153 ‘Why No Arrests?’, Abantu-Batho, 18 July 1918.

154 ‘The War News’, Abantu-Batho, 6 January 1916, trans., DNL 1329/14 D48, ‘Anglo German War: Native Newspapers: Abantu Batho’. Seme admitted authorship to the government.

155 [B. Phooko], ‘Firm and Just: Or, Just and Firm’, International, 15 December 1916; this piece originated as an ‘Open Letter to the Hon. the Acting Director of Native Labour and Controller of Native Labour’.

156 ‘The Labour Contingent’, Abantu-Batho, 18 April 1918, in A. Grundlingh, Fighting Their Own War: South African Blacks and the First World War (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1987): 103, 113. Abantu-Batho reprinted a review (‘The Black Man’s Part in the War’, 13 June 1918) of Sir Harry Johnston’s book favourable to Africans’ role in the war.

157 ‘Natives and the War’, Abantu-Batho, 14 February 1918, DNL 144/13 D205 (see Part II), also cited in Grundlingh, Fighting Their Own War: 110, who notes that their quiescence was predicated on a limited literacy and army discipline that meant, as reported by Abantu-Batho, ‘they couldn’t write otherwise’.

158 ‘Notes and Comments’, Abantu-Batho, 25 April 1918, in Grundlingh, Fighting Their Own War: 133,

159 ‘Our Position’, Abantu-Batho, 14 February 1918, in Grundlingh, Fighting Their Own War: 133.

160 ‘The Future of the German Colonies’, Abantu-Batho, 7 February 1918 (also in Grundlingh, Fighting Their Own War: 133; Letanka responded (Grundlingh, p. 134) that ‘if this doctrine is not applicable to the native inhabitants of this country, then the case of the British Government falls to the ground’).

161 D. Hafe, ‘British Expeditionary Force’, Ilanga, 26 October 1917.

162 ‘South Africa: The Next World Imbroglio?’, Abantu-Batho, 14 August 1930; W. E. B. Du Bois, ‘Smuts’, The Crisis 37(2), February 1930: 63; W. E. B. Du Bois, ‘Patient Asses’, The Crisis 37(3), March 1930: 100.

163 ‘A Meeting at Vrededorp’, Abantu-Batho, 11 July 1918. SANNC meetings also had a sergeant-at-arms.

164 ‘Mendi Memorial Club’, Abantu-Batho, 9 December 1920.

165 Rev. H. R. Ngcayiya, ‘Native Grievances’, Abantu-Batho, 16 December 1920; see Part II.

166 Abantu-Batho, 1 October 1926, cited in B. Nasson, Springboks on the Somme: South Africa in the Great War, 1914–1918 (London: Penguin, 2007): 236.